Teacher union president suspended after allegedly saying 'I'm here to defend even the worst people'

A Hamilton Township school employee has been suspended after a hidden camera video appeared to depict him saying he would downplay and not report an incident of a teacher beating a student.

The video was published Wednesday on YouTube by Project Veritas -- which the New Jersey Education Association said has used "illegal tactics to "fabricate false stories" -- and identifies the employee as Hamilton Township Education Association President David R. Perry.

The incident between the student and teacher never happened. The Veritas employee, posing as the sister-in-law of a fictitious middle school teacher, used it to get the man identified as Perry to talk about what steps would be taken if the student reported the assault. Perry could not be reached immediately for comment.

Hamilton Township Superintendent Scott Rocco said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that once he was aware of the video the district called authorities, suspended "the individual" and opened an internal investigation.

"The true beliefs and values of this school district are not represented in this video and are not aligned with who we are as faculty, staff, administration, and community," Rocco said.

In the video, the man identified as Perry says the teacher should come to him and tell him "the truth" about what happened. Later, he says he could change the date of any records he keeps, making it appear it was reported the day after it happened, and that he would downplay the incident.

"I need to know the truth, so that we can bend the truth," he says in the video. "If nobody brings it up from (the) school, I don't say boo.

"I'm here to defend even the worst people," he later says on camera.

In a second video, Project Veritas' James O'Keefe confronts Perry about the undercover video. "I said, what we do is we help people," Perry says in a second video. "And what they do wrong, they deserve their punishment."

Project Veritas has been criticized for using selective editing to create false impressions about what people in academia, government and social service organizations have said during undercover audio or video conversations. The New Jersey Education Association dismissed the video.

"Project Veritas cannot be trusted as a source and should not be dignified with coverage or response, other than to note that it is a political advocacy organization with a history of using dishonest and illegal tactics to fabricate false stories," the NJEA said in a statement. "Nothing is more important to NJEA members than the safety and well-being of the students they are privileged to educate. NJEA members go above and beyond every day to ensure that students are safe, healthy and well educated."

"This is just pathetic," Denise Ragolia-Ayres commented. "I have kids in this school system and this is infuriating."

Others were skeptical because Project Veritas was responsible for the video.

"I don't trust any videos put out by Project Veritas," said Allison Shifman Chartier. "This organization (is) horrific and has been proven to edit video for political purposes in the past. I am horrified they are in NJ, let alone Hamilton."